Cooper to reunite original band for Hall of Fame show

The shock rocker rose to fame in the group with his childhood pals Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith, but he went solo in the mid-1970s and took on the band's name.

Cooper - real name Vincent Furnier - has remained friends with his old pals and they have worked together several times in the last few years, even heading to the studio to record tracks for Cooper's upcoming album Welcome to My Nightmare II.

And he wants to get them all back on stage for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in March (11).

He tells Rolling Stone, "I was elated (when I heard the news) and I called the original band guys immediately, and said, 'Well, remember when we started in high school? Here we are. Only took 45 years...'"

And when asked whether they will perform together at the ceremony, he replies, "Yeah, in fact, we've done a couple things together in recent years. The band broke up in 1976... It was never one of those bitter break-ups. It was a break-up that was, 'I have different ideas, you have different ideas, but let's still be friends.' But we've done different charity things together recently where we've done 40 minutes of the hits."

And Cooper hopes a high-profile reunion show will lead to more concerts together, adding, "I think it is inevitable. We have kind of been looking for an excuse to do that anyway. Why not do four or five major cities, Detroit especially since that's where we broke out of. Los Angeles, New York, London, Toronto. Those were like the five cities where we got our biggest push. We might do that in the spring."